Search

I have recently started experimenting with the idea of the ‘multiple’ by playing around with an old etching and printing over the top of monoprints. I bought myself a beautiful book called ‘Wildlife in Printmaking’ and came across some amazing monoprints which inspired me to consider using this technique more in my own work.

There are six main methods of monoprinting, some of which are more controlled, but on the whole the great (or perhaps frustrating) thing is that you never quite know what you’re going to get!

Different methods:

1. Positive – Rolling out a thin layer of ink, placing your paper onto the ink and drawing directly onto the back

2. Negative – After taking your positive print, place a new piece of paper onto the ink and rub. This should pick up the negative marks.

3. Stencil – Using shapes to block areas of the rolled out ink. Also can be flipped over and double printed/layered.

4. Painterly – Painting the ink onto surface using different brushes and tools, laying the paper down and rubbing the back.

5. Reductive – Rolling out the ink and then using different tools e.g. pallet knife or end of a paintbrush to remove ink and make different marks before laying paper over and rubbing.

6. Found objects – Using materials, fabrics, bubble wrap, sand, folded paper etc to take ink away. Then perhaps flip the materials over to pick up ink from the different textures.

Below are some of the examples of my experiments using stencils for my monoprints. As you can see they come out quite differently each time!